A week of thanks...Wednesday

Okay...back on track...thankfully. As I'm sitting down to write my entry for today, I was feeling stressed out about which things to pick to write about to fit into this predetermined schedule that I've given myself.  So far, it's just been about whatever I'm feeling at the moment, but then I was like "Well I want to write about my friends and Heidi and of COURSE Hailee and...and...and...THERE AREN'T ENOUGH DAYS!!!!"  Hello, silly.  Read Monday's entry and apply.  I could write a "I'm thankful for..." post every single day for the next year if I wanted to!  Hey...maybe I could be one of those people that starts with a blog, gets "discovered" and then ends up becoming a world renown writer, or has a TV show or a book and makes a gazillion dollars just doing what they love!  Just imagine the headline...Woman starts blog on being thankful and, wow, is she thankful NOW!   Okay, probably not.  But a girl can dream.

That being said, I have all the time in the world to write about the things that I cherish and love, so what I'm thankful for #2:  friends.  Old friends, new friends, across the miles friends and down the street friends.  I'm am SO BLESSED in this department and don't know what on earth I would do without friends!  No matter what point you are in your life, friends make such a difference and in totally different ways.  Think about it...

When you're a kid...it's all about playing.  Let's pretend this and let's play that.  You are this and I am that.  Playing with friends is the best thing EVER!  Oh...and by the way...we are BEST friends.   

When you're a teenager...it's all about being popular.  The more friends you have, the more popular you are.  The more SWATCH watches you have on your arms, the better (was that a blast from the past or what?)  Friendships are still pretty superficial at this time in life I think, because no one REALLY knows who they are yet.  I do still have friends from High School that I adore, but if it weren't for Facebook, would we be in touch still?  I'm not sure...but I'm sure glad we are!   

When you get to college...that's where you meet your friends for life.  You're away from home and really begin to grow and find yourself.  It's all about sharing the experience and building memories...which is a strong foundation for friendships.  Birds of a feather flock together, right?

When you become an adult...you meet people at work, at church, in the neighborhood, through other friends and the crazy thing is that you never know who you're really going to connect with.  It depends so much on where you are in your life when you meet them...married, single, with kids, without, career focused, unemployed....the list goes on.  But how amazing is it to meet someone with whom you can really relate to and talk to about whatever it is that you have going on at that point in time? 

It's kind of like a big patchwork quilt.  You start out with a blankie when you're little, but as you grow, you add a new patch here, a new patch there.  You might even remove patches, or mend patches, or just make changes to the patches.  But, when the going gets tough, you have a great big quilt to comfort you and get you through whatever it is that you're going through.  And one of the greatest things about true friends...that no matter how much time goes by...you can pick right up where you left last time and it's just okay. 

I am so blessed to have a big ol' amazing quilt of friends.  Some of my patches are old and fading because they've been there for a long time.  Some are brand new, but definitely there to stay.  Some have more stains from my tears then others.  Some have more wine stains then others.  Some are super soft and some are made of stronger material.  Those in the middle are key to keeping it all together.  Some are around the edges and get less use.  Regardless, they've all served a very important purpose in my life and I hope I've done the same for them.  All I know is that with my patchwork quilt, I can get through just about anything.  

Just some of my dear friends on my 35th birthday.